MMU Cheshire student, studying Outdoor Studies and living life to the full with a disability.

Friday, 21 December 2012

London...it was supposed to be the last time this year...

London 6-9th December
For the final part of my self-planned birthday celebrations I dragged Mum down to see Viva Forever! (the spice girls musical) and American Idiot the musical (for the final time...honest!) In London.

My attempt at wheelchair hip photography!

We had a good few days, wandering around a place i spend far too much time in, enjoying the Christmas lights and decorations...and of course, we had to go to the imperial war museum.

We met up with my cousin who i've probably not seen in around 7 years and walked "The Laura May tour of London". yes, it exists...I did my usual spiel around parliament square and Portcullis house, over Westminster Bridge and then to the museum itself! There was a really cool/inspirational exhibition on bravery with individual stories of how some people, have had moments where they've gone with their guts, against orders/the norm and done what's right that in the long run has saved thousands of people's lives. Then there was a not so happy, but important and informative exhibition on the holocaust. That feeling that you first feel properly when you're about 15, sat in a history classroom, crept back again...frustrated anger. It just kills you inside to think how powerful human beings are, how we have the amazing ability to use what's inside us for good but also for evil. It makes you want to punch yourself in the face and say "do good, not bad!" As, we're also naive, believers of "them", society, scary, big and extreme ideas that can easily flip and cause mass destruction.

So...the following day we met up with our friend Katie and went to the Hollywood Costume exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum. While waiting to go in, we wandered around the main gallery and i couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the mentality of a lot of humanity. There was a "fashion design" area where you use the renaissance section as inspiration to design your own costume...which, is pretty cool. I'm rubbish at drawing but i'm a history geek and i like clothes. The woman, who i believe i a top designer/lecturer said to me, "are you a textiles student?" I giggled, "no." "ohh...an art student? design?" I could't help but smile. "Na, i'm going to do a degree in outdoor education." she actually burst out laughing, probably at how daft she felt. apparently my blue hair suggests "art student"...i thought it suggested..."yep, that's Laura!" Now, she meant no offence by this, and i take none by it. But it just shows how the world loves putting people in boxes, does't it? You can't like politics but want to work outdoors, you can't be a massive Green Day fan and appreciate shakespeare. You can't be totally inspired by historical leaders and movements of the past and not want to do a degree in History...Well I can, and you'll find a lot of my friends and a lot of the world like lots of things. It's school, though i experienced it as college...that pass on the mindset, "if you like this, then you must therefore do this!" I like a lot of things, i do a lt of things but i have specific sections and things that i allow to take over my life...i.e. adaptive adventure/disability stuff. I sometimes worry, that it's wrong for this to b my life now, but...it's what i care about so...
Anyway, my interesting italian-inspired by old steps jumper picture got hung up, i found the costume exhibition really interesting (if not a bit of a squeeze) from a drama perspective in how much colours and certain items of closing are paramount into fitting into the context of the film...
We then headed over to the science museum where i got over excited by the agricultural section, and the "who am i?" area, in which i tried and failed to become a man...and then got a little lost on a straight road, attempting to walk 3 miles to American Idiot the musical.
We ended up just getting the bus.